A Story of Progress: Scientists Make a Super-Honey Using Cocoa Bean Waste For Chocolatey, Heart-Healthy Jolt | A Positive Story

A Story of Progress: Scientists Make a Super-Honey Using Cocoa Bean Waste For Chocolatey, Heart-Healthy Jolt | A Positive Story

Why this story matters: This piece offers a constructive counterpoint to the constant stream of negative news. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to science, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. Credit: Deeliver Researchers in Brazil have demonstrated that ultrasonic waves can be used to extract polyphenolic nutrients from leftover cocoa bean husks, as long as you add honey first. Few things are tastier than dark chocolate dipped in honey, but the researchers weren’t only creating a tasty dessert. Rather, they demonstrated how the vast majority of cocoa cultivation waste can be used to create nutritionally-enriched honey. Cocoa beans contain a variety of phyto or plant nutrients, such as heart-healthy polyphenols, alkaloids like theobromine, and stimulants like caffeine. They’re obviously grown in mass to create chocolate, but the majority of the biomass of the cocoa harvest is in the husk and other bits that are thrown out as waste. …